17-04-2003 17:34									#1
	Are u for or against the lottery Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Are u for or against the lottery, in America to help public education.

	17-04-2003 17:42									#2
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In the current system, I'm for it. Although gambling is an addiction, and I think the lottery is regressively funded; morally questionable activities should be used to fund public programs.

	17-04-2003 17:48									#3
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There are a lot more important issues to fix now.

	17-04-2003 17:49									#4
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Agreed. If we stopped corporate corruption and government kickbacks, we could give public education the resources it needs.

	17-04-2003 18:03									#5
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I actually addressed this issue a few months back... let me see if I can find the thread.

Ah, here it is in the archive: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthre...20&pagenumber=1

This was a pretty good thread that turned into a debate between Floyd and Ramo.

	17-04-2003 19:21									#6
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Erm, please help me get this straight : there is currently a nationwide lottery in the US whose benefits would go to the education ?

	17-04-2003 19:26									#7
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I'm for it, even though it won't go to education solely.
I know. They say it will, but when the smoke clears, it doesn't.

	17-04-2003 19:40									#8
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quote: Originally posted by Spiffor Erm, please help me get this straight : there is currently a nationwide lottery in the US whose benefits would go to the education ?

No, there's not. I think he's referring to the various state lotteries. Most of them have some of the proceeds going to education.

	17-04-2003 19:41									#9
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slowwhand is right on the money, pun maybe intended. I like playing the lotto once a month but thats about it.

	17-04-2003 19:45									#10
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quote: Originally posted by Spiffor Erm, please help me get this straight : there is currently a nationwide lottery in the US whose benefits would go to the education ?

No, it's state by state. Very few states do not have a lottery, including the one I live in (Tennessee).

	17-04-2003 19:53									#11
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OK, thanks for the info. It is quite troubling that a tax on ignorance actually goes to education

	17-04-2003 19:56									#12
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Lotteries are a tax on the poor. They're ****ing terrible. They offer big payoffs for ridiculously unlikely events, and get idiots to spend big piles of money on them.

	17-04-2003 20:02									#13
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Lotteries are terrible, they are a way to ruin the poor even more by using atrocious odds against them.

However, I wouldn't spit too quickly on lottery taxes. I think most phenomenons of our society happen because they serve a function, because they have a demand. There is a demand for the amoral business that is gambling.
I prefer it being in the hands of a public business, whose output will be at least somehow useful for the community, rather than in the hands of a private business, which will milk the poor as much as it can for its sole greed.

Public lotteries are bad. But they would be worse if they were private.

	17-04-2003 20:07									#14
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No one forces people to play the lottery. if someone is an idiot enough to play the lottery often in serious hopes of monetary gain then i say they deserve to lose the money.

idiots deserved to be taxed.

	17-04-2003 20:13									#15
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The lottery is a tax on people who can't do math.

Lotteries get passed by saying the money will soley be used to fund education, with the expectation that lottery earnings will be supplimental to current education spending. Instead what happens is the state defunds education by the amount that the lottery takes in and spends it on other things. It's a scam coming an going.

Still, it's fun to dream what you would do with all that money. Every once in a while, I'll spend a buck or two on the lottery just for kicks.

	17-04-2003 20:13									#16
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Why all these bad feelings towards idiots. I know some idiots, they're good people.

	17-04-2003 20:21									#17
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good people who should know better but dont. i dont feel bad for them. its a stupidity/desperate tax (or fun tax as che and i believe). depending on how stupid or desperate you are you are placed in a varying tax bracket.

	17-04-2003 21:05									#18
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Che: "Lotteries get passed by saying the money will soley be used to fund education, with the expectation that lottery earnings will be supplimental to current education spending. Instead what happens is the state defunds education by the amount that the lottery takes in and spends it on other things. It's a scam coming an going."

Bingo! I actually did a econ thesis on this quite a number of years ago, and it was staggering - some states actually lowered their education funding (adjusted for inflation) within 3 years of the lottery's implementation.

The same damned lie was used here in TN for a statewide referendum on a lottery... and the ****er passed.

	17-04-2003 21:06									#19
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quote: Originally posted by gsmoove23 Why all these bad feelings towards idiots. I know some idiots, they're good people.

I agree. Where would Apolyton be without idiots?

	17-04-2003 21:07									#20
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Considering that I won the Texas State Lottery I would have to say that yes, I'm for it.

	18-04-2003 01:31									#21
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quote: Originally posted by JohnT Bingo! I actually did a econ thesis on this quite a number of years ago, and it was staggering - some states actually lowered their education funding (adjusted for inflation) within 3 years of the lottery's implementation. The same damned lie was used here in TN for a statewide referendum on a lottery... and the ****er passed.

That's a very good point. I think the krux of the problem here is that lottery is intended to solely pay the education budget, rather than being integres as an extra resource of the general State's budget.

There is a public lottery in France (in fact, all gambling is public except casinos and illegal street gambling AFAIK) whose earnings go to the budget in general rather than a specific spending. The income is steady, and it has become called an "indirect tax", meaning its existence doesn't excuse the lowering of a spending in particular.

Pooling the resources of lotteries with the whole State's budget might have good consequences on the education budget. What do you think ?

	18-04-2003 01:57									#22
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as my math teacher used to say.... its a tax on people who don't understand probability

i'm all for it

	18-04-2003 02:00									#23
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quote: The lottery is a tax on people who can't do math.

That being said I'm against it, as a regressive tax.

	18-04-2003 02:01									#24
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Well, I'm against it! I think it's horrible that people are stoned as part of some kind of a harvest ritual, and...

*Stefu is dragged away*

It isn't fair! It isn't fai

	18-04-2003 02:02									#25
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I say tax math teachers until all people fully understand probability.

	18-04-2003 02:19									#26
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quote: Originally posted by gsmoove23 I say tax math teachers until all people fully understand probability.

	18-04-2003 02:39									#27
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@stefu.

nice.

that said, i have to say that i like georgia's lottery system, in which the lottery money is used as supplemental spending (counties are prohibited from spending those monies on things like hiring teachers, but they can use it to purchase gyms...), and for the HOPE scholarship program, in which if you maintain a B average, you get a free ride tuition-wise at any georgia public university--and at schools like gatech and uga(honors), that's not a bad deal.

too bad i don't qualify since i left ga to go out of state.

	18-04-2003 02:40									#28
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John T: We will see how it goes. Have you seen the bills that the state legislature paseed a week or two ago? I haven't but from what I heard on the news there seems to already be a debate about the monetary allocation.

	18-04-2003 02:43									#29
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I'd vote for the lottery in Arkansas if a decent proposal was put on the ballot. The last few have been outright scams--I think the people that came up with the last one ended up in prison.

I'd vote for casinos too--but none of this riverboat or reservation idiocy. Drop 'em wherever you want 'em.

	18-04-2003 03:07									#30
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If something in the store cost 8.95 and I have a ten I'll buy a dollar ticket.

I don't expect to win, but somebody wins eventually. For every 3 dollars i spend on lottery tickets, that's one less pack of cigarettes to kill myself with.



ACK!